This invention relates to improved tools for connecting or disconnecting threaded well pipes.
In running a string of drill pipe or other pipe into or out of a well, a great deal of rig time and effort can be expended in screwing the many threaded connections of the pipe together or apart. At the location of each such connection, a number of steps are required, including first supporting the lower of the two pipes or stands in the rotary table by slips, and then turning the upper pipe relative to the lower one to connect or disconnect the threaded parts. The major portion of this rotation may be effected by a rapidly turning spinner unit, with the last few degrees of make-up rotation or the first few degrees of disconnecting breakaway rotation being produced by a tong or torque wrench mechanism.
In most instances, the slip structure, spinner and tongs or torque wrench have in the past been separate tools, requiring individual manipulation and considerable manual exertion and dexerity in controlling the tools at each threaded joint. U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,009, however, shows a device in which a spinner and torque wrench assembly are mounted to a common support, with the spinner acting to rapidly rotate the upper of two well pipes, and with the torque wrench functioning to exert greater rotative force for completing the final make-up of the joint, or for initially breaking the threaded connection. U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,822 shows a slip installing device which, it is understood, may have been utilized in conjunction with the spinner-tong tool of U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,009, as apparently indicated by an article written by the inventor in the May 1971 issue of Drilling DCW magazine. Other combination well tools are shown in U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,086,413 and 3,203,284.